Production Location Options Are Now Global Andy Marken December 3, 2024
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Once loyalty begins, it does not have an end. Otherwise, it would not be loyalty. - Mariko, Shogun, FX Productions, 2024
A lot of people like to blame the six-month combined strikes as a big reason fewer films and TV series aren't being greenlit in Hollywood and fewer industry pros at every level are working.
Wrong!
We'll state the obvious.
People have been putting in way too many hours for too many days straight for too little pay, and minimal benefits for creating, producing films and shows for a long time not just in Hollywood, but across the country and the industry.
A key part of the Hollywood content production cut back was highlighted by John Landgraf, FX Network's chairman years ago when he coined the term Peak TV.
Back in the television heyday, there was a proliferation of large and diverse scripted shows; but as Landgraf projected, those days are gone as the TV industry enters the new era of budget management in the face of diminishing pay TV subscriptions.
You could blame the dwindling pay TV audience on the rapidly increased interest in streaming anytime, anywhere, any screen entertainment.
Netflix and Amazon Prime certainly encouraged people to change their viewing habits but the studios/networks (Disney, WBD, Paramount, Peacock and their network subsidiaries) saw where home/personal entertainment was going and wanted to retain - and increase their audiences.
But Landgraf also noted that the TV industry was simply producing an unsustainable glut of content that was exceeding consumers' entertainment demands and budgets.
Production shut down simply gave them the time and opportunity to reevaluate their focus, direction, content priorities and budgets.
Scripted series dropped from commissioning 600 series in 2022 down to 516 last year.
This year, an estimated 490 scripted series were ordered - with abbreviated seasons - as network TV shifted their show/content orders to cheaper, less complicated game, reality and unscripted shows.
In other words, the end of Peak TV probably spells the end of Peak TV employment.
Another part of the problem is that Hollywood/LA believed its own publicity that the area is the absolute mecca of video content creation/production.
Production has been leaving the area for years for places like Georgia, Texas, NYC, Toronto, Britain, Australia, Nigeria, Mumbai, Brazil, South Korea, Berlin and other places around the globe.
Suddenly, studios and streamers had options.
New, ultra-modern studios have been built everywhere.
Location Options - New studios and the supporting service operations are cropping up around the globe as locations bid to be the greenlight location of choice including such locations as Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta and Hertswood Studios in England.
You know, like Tyler Perry's sprawling and expanding studios near Atlanta or Hertsmere's expansive facilities in England and modern content creation centers just about everywhere.
All of the studios are built with multiple virtual production capabilities that enable creatives to duplicate any location and environment on and off the planet to eliminate or minimize location shoots.
VP - All of the new film/show studios include at least one large and one small virtual production facility that enable content owners to quickly create (and recreate) locations found anywhere around the world and beyond as well as any time period - past, present and future.
All of these content-bidding centers also have the latest cameras, technologies and a growing pool of production people schooled in advanced production techniques that are available to the project owners.
Postproduction has never been an issue because most of this creative work/magic is already done remotely and globally with projects moving seamlessly across the internet from one specialist to another, regardless of where he/she is located.
Incentives - Cities, states, regions and countries are all expanding their incentive programs and capabilities to make it faster, easier and financially rewarding to create/produce films/shows around the world.
Cities, states and countries have increased their financial and tax incentives. They've also beefed up and expanded their financial, tax incentive and cash rebate programs 20-40 percent to produce/co-produce projects in their areas.
They've also modified and streamlined their production and location shooting coordination assistance to make it not only more economic but also easier to work on projects in the area.
Many of the areas have set up their own educational facilities to train people in the type of work that is needed in film/show production and support activities.
A good base of crew, labor and production facilities plus incentives can be very persuasive.
As a result, there has been a growing interest in filming locations not just in Georgia, New Mexico, New York and Louisiana but also in Canada, the UK, Australia and other locations around the globe that have invested heavily in the creative project infrastructure as well as crew training. This assistance has resulted in a rash of major films like Anyone But You, The Fall Guy, Bob Marley: One Love, The Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Surfer and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga being produced in English-friendly countries.
Necessary Move - To increase its global subscription numbers, Netflix also had to expand its video libraries to include a specific percentage of films/shows that were produced in the country.
Yes, global streamers like Netflix, which is available in 190 countries and has nearly 280M subscribers, according to the latest earnings report, has taken advantage of the globalization of content production.
But it initially began as a requirement f
